“Obviously, he’s got to change, because you can’t come in there being the same person – you got beat down doing it,” Dillashaw told MMAjunkie Radio. “But it’s going to be hard for him to change in that short amount of time.

“I think it would have been smarter for him to fight some other people, but also to rest his brain from all those strikes I landed.”

Dillashaw knocked down the dominant Brazilian quickly into their first meeting at UFC 173 and stopped him in the fifth round to become the new champ. He was the biggest underdog to win a title in UFC history at 7-to-1.

Going into the second fight, the betting margins are slim, with Dillashaw this time set as a slight favorite.

The UFC typically takes the long view on title rematches, reserving do-overs for controversial scorecards. At UFC 177, however, there’s no question who won the first fight. Instead, the promotion is trading on Barao’s three title defenses and nine-year win streak.

Ads tease: “Was the first loss a fluke, or is the new champ here to stay?”

His longtime striking coach, Mark Henry, said Edgar’s clashes with Penn helped make him a star, and later, solidify him as champ after he avenged a controversial draw to Maynard.

At first, Henry wasn’t jazzed at the idea of training his fighter so soon for the same guy. Now, he sees the benefits.

“It’s so hard to figure out what’s going to happen with an opponent in striking and distance, so once you’ve seen it, it’s easier to pick apart and figure things out,” Henry said.

Whether or not Barao is fully recovered, the UFC hasn’t had the best luck this year with pay-per-view headliners falling out due to injuries, scheduling, and athletic commission troubles. The promotion needs stars, preferably in their home towns.

When a proposed title rematch between light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson was delayed, it made Dillasaw an easy choice to main event at Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena, where his teammate, Urijah Faber, has sold out three events.

Days after UFC 173, the new champ said he wouldn’t give Barao another chance out of the gate. That changed quickly.

“I brought the upset and got everyone excited about my fight,” Dillashaw said. “Now, I get to do it in Sacramento. It’s going to be crazy and exciting to see how loud it is in the octagon, because I feed off the energy of the crowd.”

Certainly, the fans will let Barao know he’s the underdog. It just so happens this time around, statistics back them up.

Matt Brown performed an honest career calculation that led him to his decision to retire after his next fight. His opponent, Diego Sanchez, seems to have chosen the opposite path. For many aging fighters, these are the two choices, and neither is an easy one to make.